diff --git a/rc/sh.kak b/rc/sh.kak
index 412d3d336..8ea949df5 100644
--- a/rc/sh.kak
+++ b/rc/sh.kak
@@ -6,21 +6,22 @@ hook global BufSetOption mimetype=text/x-shellscript %{
     set buffer filetype sh
 }
 
-addhl -group / group sh
-addhl -group /sh regex \<(if|then|fi|while|for|do|done|case|esac|echo|cd|shift|return|exit|local)\> 0:keyword
-addhl -group /sh regex [\[\]\(\)&|]{2} 0:operator
-addhl -group /sh regex (\w+)= 1:identifier
-addhl -group /sh regex ^\h*(\w+)\h*\(\) 1:identifier
-addhl -group /sh regex "(^|\h)#.*?$" 0:comment
-#addhl -group /sh regex (["'])(?:\\\1|.)*?\1 0:string
+addhl -group / multi_region -default code sh \
+    double_string  %{(^|\h)"} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*"} '' \
+    single_string %{(^|\h)'} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*'} '' \
+    comment '#' '$' ''
 
-addhl -group /sh region double_string %{(^|\h)"} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*"}
-addhl -group /sh/double_string/content fill string
+addhl -group /sh/double_string fill string
+addhl -group /sh/single_string fill string
+addhl -group /sh/comment fill comment
 
-addhl -group /sh region single_string %{(^|\h)'} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*'}
-addhl -group /sh/single_string/content fill string
+addhl -group /sh/code regex \<(if|then|fi|while|for|do|done|case|esac|echo|cd|shift|return|exit|local)\> 0:keyword
+addhl -group /sh/code regex [\[\]\(\)&|]{2} 0:operator
+addhl -group /sh/code regex (\w+)= 1:identifier
+addhl -group /sh/code regex ^\h*(\w+)\h*\(\) 1:identifier
 
-addhl -group /sh regex \$(\w+|\{.+?\}) 0:identifier
+addhl -group /sh/code regex \$(\w+|\{.+?\}) 0:identifier
+addhl -group /sh/double_string regex \$(\w+|\{.+?\}) 0:identifier
 
 hook global WinSetOption filetype=sh %{ addhl ref sh }
 hook global WinSetOption filetype=(?!sh).* %{ rmhl sh }